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Five reasons why a Young Person’s Course is the ideal starting point

By Danny Kelly

16 June 2017

Everyone’s creative journey has to start somewhere, and at MetFilm School we think a Young Person’s Course is the ideal starting point. For many years we have been providing 14-17-year-olds their first taste of filmmaking and acting through our various courses – each led by a team of industry professional tutors. We offer weekend workshops and residential camps at Rugby School, one of the UK’s leading independent schools.

With the school holidays fast approaching, we thought we’d catch-up with MetFilm tutor Pete Appleyard – who has inspired countless young creatives who are passionate about film, television and online media – on his top five reasons for studying a young people’s course.

Everybody’s a filmmaker today

John Milius


Over the last decade, making movies has become a more accessible career for many young filmmakers. With greater access to affordable cameras, lights and editing software, most aspiring Directors and Producers can start telling cinematic stories at a young age. So with all that technology at your fingertips is it still worth attending a filmmaking course? I think so and here are my top reasons why:

Learn the fundamentals

Learning other skills will help you communicate with people and respect what they do” Tina Fey
While there are lots of great blogs, books and online courses available, there is almost TOO much information available to new filmmakers. On a MetFilm course, we take you through the basics of each of the disciplines of filmmaking – ensuring you have a thorough working knowledge of practical filmmaking. This includes Directing, Producing, Editing, Camera work and recording Sound.

Work with collaborators

A great movie evolves when everybody has the same vision in their heads” Alan Parker
Probably the most important thing you can find at a film school is other filmmakers! Finding passionate, creative, hard-working people to help you make your films isn’t easy, but you can be sure that our classrooms are full of those people. From classroom discussions to on-set decision making, having a team around you who love making movies as much as you do makes all the difference.

You can make mistakes!

There’s nothing quite like the idea of failing spectacularly to excite a filmmaker” – Mike Figgis
A hard lesson but it’s a little bit easier to take when you have a team of tutors, technicians and classmates around you. Like any skill, you have to mess up a few times before you start getting things right and film school is a safe and supportive place for your mistakes to happen. Better here than on your first job!

Use the correct kit the right way

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Most people can pick up a camera and at least know which direction to point it in. However, you probably need a bit more guidance to be able to operate a full shooting kit. We make sure every one of our filmmaking students has full inductions in camera, lights and sound as well as knowing the industry standard way to work and communicate on set.

Show your work to an audience!

If a million people see my movie, I hope they see a million different movies” – Quentin Tarantino
Most independent filmmakers have to settle for their film being shown on YouTube. In each of our young filmmakers’ classes, students make a graduation film and screen it for an audience. As any experienced filmmaker will tell you, there is nothing quite like screening your film on a big screen for an audience and to see them laugh, scream or cry (hopefully all in the right places).


Browse MetFilm School’s Young Person’s Course selection or request details from the Admissions team. 

Explore our Young Person’s Courses in this short overview